Giving back! How your wedding can help the world

Your wedding can help the world. Weddings are a wonderful thing and as you carefully plan out how to spend your dollars, perhaps keep in mind options on how to give back! Here are some ideas:

Purchase a pre-owned gown / Donate your wedding dress

Brides Do Good – A social enterprise that sells luxury pre-loved and sample designer wedding gowns to eradicate child marriage. Each dress that BDG sells supports a non-profit that I am on the board of – Too Young To Wed

Brides For A Cause – A non-profit organization that collects and resells wedding dresses. The funds are dispersed among a variety of women-focused charities in our new fundraising campaign, “Cash for the Cause”

One Hope Wine – Every bottle of ONEHOPE Wine makes a quantifiable social impact through our partner non-profits. For example, with our California Sparkling Brut, the average wedding toast can provide 50 nutritious meals to children in need!

Conflict-free, ethically sourced wedding rings

Brilliant Earth – Our ethically sourced natural diamonds originate from mines that follow strict labor, trade, and environmental standards. We also offer lab created and recycled diamonds, both of which are eco-friendly alternatives.

Blue Nile – Blue Nile, along with the global diamond industry, has a zero-tolerance policy toward conflict diamonds. Through measures such as the Kimberley Process, which tracks diamonds from mine to market, the industry in partnership with the United Nations, governments, and non-governmental organizations, polices diamond exports to prevent the trade of illegal diamonds. At Blue Nile, we only purchase diamonds through the largest and most respected suppliers who, like us, proudly adhere to and enforce the standards established by the Kimberley Process. All Blue Nile diamonds are warranted to be conflict free.

Instead of wedding favors, donate to a cause!

From my experience as a Boston wedding photographer, wedding favors tend to be around $2-$6 per favor. Rather than the $200-$1000 that a couple may spend on favors, some couples will put signage on tables expressing that that they have made a contribution to a charity of their choice

In lieu of wedding gifts, have your guests donate to a cause!

“Give Back gift table” – Instead of a traditional registry of kitchen and home gifts, couples opt for their guests to donate money to charity(ies) of their choice.